Cork house in the Gulbenkian Foundation during a 20-day concert

With support from Corticeira Amorim, a temporary cork house has been installed in the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation’s outdoor amphitheatre. Over a 20-day period - from April 9 to 29 – the Italian pianist Marino Formenti will stage the performance, Nowhere.

The artist Ricardo Jacinto has created a temporary cork residence, which will be inhabited by the pianist Marino Formenti, who will sit at the piano, play, sleep, eat and live. Ricardo Jacinto talked about the architectural project, explaining that "it’s the result of an invitation to design a temporary house for the performance by the pianist Marino Formenti".

“In this context, cork’s acoustic and thermal properties, coupled with a construction system that required quick assembly and ease of transformation of the material to the site, were decisive for choosing cork.”

Ricardo Jacinto, Artist

The house includes cork provided by the companies, Amorim Cork Composites and Amorim Isolamentos. It uses 300 blocks of expanded cork agglomerate, a material used as the structural element of the house’s walls, together with several cork composite solutions, that cover the roof, floor and ceiling, in a total of about 200 m2.

Every day - between 10 am and 8 pm - the general public is invited to come and go freely, with the chance to listen to live music, in a repertoire that includes John Cage, Morton Feldman, Erik Satie, Brian Ero, Jean-Henri d'Anglebert , Gaspard le Roux or Bjork, varying between baroque and contemporary music, in a performance / concert integrated within BoCA - Biennial of Contemporary Arts.

As a result of 24h/day streaming from BoCA’s website (www.bocabienal.org) the entire performance / concert, Nowhere, from start to finish, can be watched remotely.